the mountain is high
so in the clouds they appear—
the cherry blossoms
never a day does my heart
not go there and long to pluck

Meaning

Because the mountain is high, the cherry blossoms appear among the clouds; there is not a day when my heart does not go there, wishing to pluck them.

Commentary

Book Seven Felicitations

A spring poem among those written on a screen painted with scenes of the four seasons, at the fortieth-year celebration banquet of Fujiwara no Sadakuni, composed by the Naishi-no-Kami.

The poem is inspired by a screen painting of cherry blossoms blooming high in the clouds upon a lofty mountain. Though the place cannot truly be reached, there is not a single day when the heart does not long to go there and gather the blossoms.
Though classified as a felicitations poem, it does not directly express a wish for long life like the others.

Author

Oshikochi no Mitsune

Source

Kokin Wakashu

Other

for ten thousand years in the pine I have blessed you— my lord, it is so for beneath your thousand years’ shade I would dwell and live in peace
on Kasuga plain while gathering the young herbs— for ten thousand years the heart that offers up such prayer the gods must surely know it

the mountain is high so in the clouds they appear— the cherry blossoms never a day does my heart not go there and long to pluck

the mountain is high
so in the clouds they appear—
the cherry blossoms
never a day does my heart
not go there and long to pluck